Sometime next summer, contractors will converge on Mary Swiacki’s property in Armada Township and start digging.

It won’t be the first time.

A pipeline that carries crude oil from the vast fields of western Canada runs through northern Macomb County and crosses the northern edge of Swiacki’s 10 acres. On occasion over the years, Enbridge, the company that owns the pipe, has opened the land to perform maintenance.

But this time will be different. Enbridge plans to replace the existing 30-inch pipe with a new, state-of-the-art version. That will require more digging than before, and Swiacki is bracing for the possibility that her dog pen and even some large trees on her property will be sacrificed to the work.

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“I think it’s going to be a bigger intrusion than the last time,” Swiacki said. “I’m not looking forward to this time.”

The work on Swiacki’s property is a small stretch of Enbridge’s planned $1.3 billion project the company calls the Line 6B Maintenance and Rehabilitation Project.

The plan calls for the replacement of some 210 miles of pipe that runs from near Gary, Ind. to Sarnia, Ontario in Canada. About 50 miles of that line runs through northern Oakland and Macomb counties; roughly from Ortonville through Bruce, Armada and Richmond townships and then on across St. Clair County to Marysville. The line then crosses the St. Clair River carrying crude oil to refineries near Sarnia.

Enbridge is awaiting final approval from the Michigan Public Service Commission before starting work on the Oakland-Macomb-St. Clair County sections.

“I would expect to start in August of 2013 and finish by the end of 2013,” said Thomas Hodge, project director for Enbridge.

Enbridge, a Canadian energy company based in Calgary, Alberta, cites two main reasons for the project.

First: to reduce required maintenance of the pipeline. That will benefit affected landowners, Hodge said.

“Some of these people, we’ve been back on their property two or three times,” he said. “This work will eliminate that.”

Second: The work will increase capacity to meet rising demand for products made from crude oil, which include gasoline, diesel fuel and asphalt.

“All of us are using more oil-based products,” said Jason Manshum, senior adviser for community relations.

But to complete the project, Enbridge will have to expose the pipeline, and that means digging up people’s property.

John Paterek, is supervisor of Armada Township, where the Enbridge pipeline cuts a swath across the entire northern section of the township.

Paterek recently met with Enbridge officials, who updated township officials on the status of the project.

“It’s something we must have,” Paterek said. “It’s a necessary evil. But when you start talking about people’s property, it’s an emotional issue.”

While Enbridge prefers to negotiate with homeowners for purchase of the necessary property easements, company officials conceded they’ve had to resort to condemnation proceedings on many occasions — about 70 alone in a stretch from Stockbridge in Ingham County to Ortonville.

Moreover, Enbridge didn’t make a lot of friends in western Michigan in 2010 when a leak in the 6B line dumped some 843,000 gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River near Marshall.

Following a hearing on the spill, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a scathing criticism of Enbridge’s response, with one NTSB officials likening the company to “the Keystone Cops.”

Enbridge released a written statement following the NTSB hearing.

“We believe that the experienced personnel involved in the decisions made at the time of the release were trying to do the right thing,” Patrick Daniel, Enbridge president, said in the statement. “As with most such incidents, a series of unfortunate events and circumstances resulted in an outcome no one wanted.”

But the spill also underscored the need to replace the pipeline. Originally placed in service in 1969, the material used to manufacture the pipeline more than four decades ago simply doesn’t measure up to today’s standards, Hodge said.

“Anybody who installed that in the mid-1960s had issues with corrosion,” he said. “The (replacement pipeline) is thicker and stronger.”

The Ortonville-to-Marysville section will cut across mostly rural areas. Still, landowners like Swiacki wonder what their property will look like when the work is finished.

Swiacki had no major complaints with Enbridge’s restoration work in the past, and she knows that meeting energy needs is important.

But a tinge of uncertainty remains.

“When we bought the property we were aware of (the pipeline),” said Swiacki, the Armada Township clerk. “But you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Enbridge has dedicated a section of its company’s Website to the Line 6B project. To access the information, visit www.enbridgeus.com/line6bprojects.